Real Estate

Job growth has improved throughout California and the state’s housing market looks bright for 2015. To be a successful player in the next year’s home buyer market, it’s essential to understand what indicators and trends will push market gains, and one real estate statistic has Central Valley professionals enthusiastic about the New Year... Read More

Not only do trees beautify your home and neighborhood, they can help to dramatically reduce cooling costs during the hot summer months. Sacramento County residents are eligible for up to 10 free trees through the Sacramento Shade tree program, a partnership between Sacramento Tree Foundations and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Businesses, parks and schools in the SMUD service area are also eligible for free SMUD shade trees.

Sacramento Shade customers can choose from over 30 deciduous trees (deciduous trees shed their leaves in the fall to allow the warm winter sun into your home).

Things have settled down it seems with regard to struggling homeowners, loan modifications that never seem to come, short sales and foreclosures. Rest assured the struggles are not over. Just because the news is not reporting to the degree they have in years past does not mean homeowners are not grappling with what to do about the plummeting values of their homes versus the higher dollar values they still owe – life underwater is a booming metropolis!

Most of the people I speak with are angry and simply tired of struggling. They are angry that not a single banking executive has been held accountable for the corruption and deceit in the collapse of the mortgage industry and they are out of options to keep the house they love.

By now, we’ve all heard the news, “CA and NY have joined the multi-state mortgage settlement.” As a real estate and mortgage professional, I did (legal) loan modifications for nearly four years and I can assure you, California joining this lawsuit will do little to help California home owners struggling to keep their homes.

Let’s look at the facts, the most important one being that CA has six out of the top ten cities in the nation hardest hit by declining home values (Modesto (4), Merced (5), Stockton (7), Riverside (8), Bakersfield (9), and Vallejo/Fairfield (10), with many of them 30-50% underwater.

The bottom line is this, a $20,000 principal forgiveness is not nearly enough to help balance out the numbers from underwater to break-even.

Cheri Elliott, one of America’s most legendary cyclist and locally well known as “The Broker on a Bike,” announced the launch of her free real estate mobile app.

The app uses GPS, when available, to locate the user and instantly display real estate listings in the immediate area. No more having to pull flyers. You can see and save all the listings details and photos on the spot. Users can also search by address, city or zip code to see property details for all homes for sale in a specified area, including price, square footage, estimated mortgage, taxes, features, maps, pictures and more. The “Refine Search” feature lets users select a price range, property type and the number of beds and baths to help them find just what they’re looking for.

It works on standard cell phones, smartphones, and iPhones/iPads across all mobile carriers. Cheri explains, “This tool is extremely powerful.